Locsin apologizes for tweet on Palestinian children

Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, October 22) – Special Envoy of the President to China Teddy Locsin Jr. has apologized for his controversial tweet that said “Palestinian children should be killed,” explaining it was his “sarcastic response” to another post.

“My apologies to those who did misconstrue my sentiments and did in fact get triggered,” Locsin said in a more recent tweet.

“I obviously was not advocating for the literal death of anyone, but rather simply for the end of any ideology that condones terrorism in any way, shape or form,” he added.

Locson’s earlier tweet was a response to another X, formerly Twitter, user that stated that Palestinians are led astray by Hamas leaders into engaging in “perilous activities like stone-throwing.”

“That’s why Palestinian children should be killed; they might grow up to be gullible as innocent Palestinians letting Hamas launch rockets at Israel; not that they could stop them but that’s no excuse. They are Muslims. They could stage mass suicide attacks against Hamas until the latter ran out of bullets,” Locsin said in the now-deleted tweet.

The conflict in Israel erupted on Oct. 7 when Palestinian militant group Hamas fired rockets into Israeli territory.

As of Oct. 17, more than 1,400 deaths were logged in Israel and more than 3,000 casualties were recorded in Gaza.

The Department of Foreign Affairs confirmed that four overseas Filipino workers were killed in the war.

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